BOBIE-LEE DIXON
(bobie-lee.dixon@guardian.co.tt)
Local celebrity hairstylist Candice Mohan is calling on the Government to become innovative and use all its resources instead of shutting down businesses.
She said if the issue continued to be people’s indiscretion regarding the COVID-19 protocols, there was something the Ministry of Health could do.
“Why don’t we have health inspectors checking these businesses? Why aren’t we implementing things on a different strategy? She asked.
She said there were community police and SRPs who could be assigned to various districts to carry out checks at business places to ensure all protocols were being observed and where they weren’t, fines could be applied.
The owner at Candice MohanTT, located at One Woodbrook Place, said the authorities and some in the business community seemed devoid of ideas on how to save the country’s economy.
She said, “Implement ways. Use the ministries. You have Local Government and you have MPs, get the councillors in your areas, get the business people association, the Bar Association, the Restaurant Association. We have all these associations in Trinidad and Tobago, where are these people? Why are they not coming together and strategising?
Stating while she understood it was a deadly pandemic and safety was of utmost priority. At the same time, shutdowns were placing sole traders like herself in cycles of debt that looms.
“We just came out of a cycle last year and there are a lot of other salon owners like myself. I mean I am thankful that my business is still standing strong, I am not saying no, but I have a debt to clear from last year. It’s things like that and then it’s like a cycle repeats,” Mohan lamented.
She said when the shutdown was announced last Thursday, her employees, who are weekly paid ,were immediately in a state of worry.
“Some salons are for fortunate that they can have monthly salaries. But when you have the sole traders like regular hair stylists who work on a small range like myself, they don’t have income coming in, they don’t. They survive on a weekly salary. I did myself a few years ago before I had my business, my salary was $900 a week and this is no strange thing,” she explained.
If something is not done soon, Mohan wonders what would become of people in the sector.
“I am trying to figure out how are we supposed to survive with this industry like this. How? How? With the closures of everything. We are not even able to work like one on one,” she lamented.
Mohan, who is also heavily involved in charity, said knowing her workers could not make any money this week, she gave them hampers to help them through the next few days.
But for herself, she does not know how she would pay this month’s rent.
“While you want to respect the guidelines and stuff. Where am I getting money to pay this month’s rent when three weeks I am closed without warning?” She asked.
She said while some might argue given the increase in COVID-19 cases, businesses should have anticipated a lockdown and do some preparation work of their own, it must be understood some businesses were still going through recovery mode so there was no way, any kind of preparation could have been done.
She reiterated, “You have a cycle of debt that is repeating. So fast as you have paid off certain things like for products and supplies. Products went up by at least 15 per cent in increase because supply and demand for foreign exchange is not happening.
Describing the challenges her business has experienced since the pandemic hit, she said it was a rippling effect.
“A lot of my products I cannot get it right now because the companies are not able to stock, because the borders are locked, forex is going up, we can’t get $US in the country. So you pay a higher price for the product since last year this has happened. We reopened, but when we reopened it’s because you are clearing a debt and then you have a high cost of operation.”
Mohan said as a medium class business experiencing these challenges, she shuddered to think what smaller scale salons were experiencing.
The mother of two, who said she survived domestic violence, said her business was dear to her because it was conceived during her growth, coming out of a very dark period in her life, and to think that all the years of building her business could just come crashing down in a week or two was something she could not bear.